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Lifestyle

Fashion mogul Santo Versace visits Manila


The president of international fashion house Versace S.p.A. arrived in the Philippines on Friday to raise funds for Filipino children with facial deformities. Santo Versace, older brother of the late Gianni Versace who founded the famous Italian couture line, will be in the country for three days as the special guest of Century Properties for its lifestyle exhibit this Saturday at the company's headquarters in Makati City.
The exhibit, showcasing unique Versace products flown in from the boutique's shops in Milan and Hong Kong, will be staged for the benefit of Operation Smile Philippines, an organization which helps Filipino children with cleft lips and palates. Versace is the president of Operation Smile Foundation Italy. The exhibit in Makati will feature the interior design themes crafted by Versace home for the Milano Residences, a tie-up between Century Properties and Versace. In 2010, the local real estate developer and the world-renowned fashion brand had teamed up to funnel more than P3 billion into the development of the designer condominium. “We are doing this in thanksgiving [for] the huge success of the project," said Robbie Antonio, Centruy Properties president. “The Milano Residences since its launch last January is close to 70 percent sold." Versace's charity work includes aid campaigns in quake-struck Haiti and the conflict-ridden countries in Africa and the Middle East. He has also dabbled in Italian politics, securing a parliament seat at Italy's Chamber of Deputies since 2008 as a member of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Freedom Party. More than a decade ago, Versace and his sister Donatella relaunched the Versace brand after the murder of their brother Gianni in Miami Beach, leading the company to a $1-billion-a-year success in retail sales. — JMT, GMA News

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